Best way to freeze fruit?

I am thinking of using liquid nitrogen to freeze some berries and I was wondering if anybody has tried this before and had any thoughts about it, especially if it was not worth the time!

Sounds like a lot of trouble to me. I just lay the fruit pieces on a cookie sheet and set that in my deep freezer until frozen. Then I put the pieces in a freezer container. If I'm worried the pieces will brown, I dunk them in Fruit Fresh first. I have hulled whole strawberries, blueberries, black raspberries and peach slices in the freezer now. They keep quite well and by freezing them on a tray, they are much easier to use.

yep. complete waste of time.

I have no idea what would be involved in the liquid nitrogen method (nor do i necessarily care to) but, for those of us with crappy condo side by side freezers that are usually so packed that you can barely get anything in or out, the "lay things out nicely on a sheet" method is not feasible. Any other options recommended? I'd like to say that I could empty out the freezer but even that wouldn't yield much--i couldn't get anything resembling a cookie sheet on any of my shelves. Help?

The faster you freeze the fruit, the better the quality will be when thawed because ice crystal formation is kept to a minimum. This will prevent ruptured cell walls, which make the fruit mushy when thawed. Normal blast freezers used to freeze individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit operate at around -30F but some do use liquid nitrogen.

theskinnyduck wrote:I am thinking of using liquid nitrogen to freeze some berries and I was wondering if anybody has tried this before and had any thoughts about it, especially if it was not worth the time!

I've never tried it. You might find this recent Gardenweb post helpful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load ... 86458.html
As well as this: http://www.cheftalk.com/forum/thread/55 ... d-nitrogen

boudreaulicious wrote:... for those of us with crappy condo side by side freezers that are usually so packed that you can barely get anything in or out, the "lay things out nicely on a sheet" method is not feasible. Any other options recommended?

Yea, liquid nitrogen. More seriously, before I got a second freezer, the only way I could freeze fruit was to lay them out on plates. I couldn't get a full sheet pan in my freezer, but I could get a plate in. So I froze small batches.

Fujisan wrote:The faster you freeze the fruit, the better the quality will be when thawed because ice crystal formation is kept to a minimum. This will prevent ruptured cell walls, which make the fruit mushy when thawed. Normal blast freezers used to freeze individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit operate at around -30F but some do use liquid nitrogen.

That was my train of thought too. Rule of thumb for freezing would be quick freeze, slow thawing. Since ideally a slower gradient of temperature would help in preserving membranes intact Im considering dry ice followed by liq.N. Snap freezing sounds like a lot quicker though. Maybe I should experiment with both and see which would work best and I think the rasberries I am picking at upberries this weekend are going to be the perfect subject to test the methods on.

boudreaulicious wrote:I have no idea what would be involved in the liquid nitrogen method (nor do i necessarily care to) but, for those of us with crappy condo side by side freezers that are usually so packed that you can barely get anything in or out, the "lay things out nicely on a sheet" method is not feasible.

I am with you on that, I have very little space in my freezer too! I personally think snap freezing would be the quickest and easiest way to freeze the fruit and makes perfect sense to me.

How are you planning to snap freeze them?

Darren72 wrote:How are you planning to snap freeze them?

Just pour them in the liquid nitrogen. That is considered snap freezing. Ill put them in bags afterwards.

theskinnyduck wrote:

Darren72 wrote:How are you planning to snap freeze them?

Just pour them in the liquid nitrogen. That is considered snap freezing. Ill put them in bags afterwards.

Sorry, I misunderstood you when you said you'd compare snap freezing to the dry ice/liquid nitrogen combination. I thought you were going to compare the liquid nitrogen to some type of blast freezing. Anyways, I look forward to hearing how this turns out.

I think the most important question is: what are you planning to do with the frozen berries? For the best uses of frozen berries, whether or not they have maintained their structural integrity is irrelevant.

Kennyz wrote:I think the most important question is: what are you planning to do with the frozen berries? For the best uses of frozen berries, whether or not they have maintained their structural integrity is irrelevant.

Structural integrity is not relevant only for aesthetic purposes, if structural integrity is compromised because of crushing or blasting, so will taste eventually. If I want to crush something I want it to be crushed when I want it crushed, not before. Plus, its a matter of philosophy, if you can do things better why settle for less? I am planning to use them in cheesemaking and cider making ( which is why I need to freeze the unsprayed berries) and decorations, frozen berries when intact are beautiful.

theskinnyduck wrote:

Kennyz wrote:I think the most important question is: what are you planning to do with the frozen berries? For the best uses of frozen berries, whether or not they have maintained their structural integrity is irrelevant.

Structural integrity is not relevant only for aesthetic purposes, if structural integrity is compromised because of crushing or blasting, so will taste eventually. If I want to crush something I want it to be crushed when I want it crushed, not before. Plus, its a matter of philosophy, if you can do things better why settle for less? I am planning to use them in cheesemaking and cider making ( which is why I need to freeze the unsprayed berries) and decorations, frozen berries when intact are beautiful.

I'll stick with waste of time, but it sounds like you already had an answer you were going with before you asked the question. Enjoy the process.

I have some of the same issues with the skinny side by side freezer. After many years of freezing blueberries and raspberries on a sheet pan in my other freezer, I discovered that you can just put them in freezer bags and they don't stick together.

I did a stupid thing. I had a tub of persimmons in the freezer that I was going to use for Persimmon Meringue Pie for Thanksgiving. I accidentally wrote "defrost persimmons" in my datebook this Monday, not next Monday, so now I have defrosted fruit a week ahead of schedule.

Would it be better to refreeze them or leave them in the back of the fridge for a week and hope for the best?

I don't have the recipe with me but I believe it's an egg-thickened custard.

Thanks!

I have seen persimmons in stores now. My suggestion is use the thawed guys for something else, and get fresh persimmons next week.